


The Long While

by Jevil_Joss



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 08:16:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18192056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jevil_Joss/pseuds/Jevil_Joss
Summary: Enchanted weapons are like people--either great friends, or great enemies.





	The Long While

**Author's Note:**

> A quick work, introducing a character I want to work with later.

Narina Mariana was 1,478 years old, and somehow, life still sucked. 

She wore leather armor--this high up in the mountains, wearing steel was a death sentence. Her long, black hair was tied back into a ponytail. Her right eye ached--though that might have something to do with the fact that it was gone. Her eye-patch covered the hole, but not the three, long scars that dominated that side of her face. 

She paused for a minute, then summoned one of her enchanted swords--Wind Bane. Blue magic crackled around her, and the sword appeared in her hand.

_ Hello!  _ the sword said.  _ What is it? _

“Can’t see a burning thing in this snow,” she replied. If magic was left on its own for a sufficient amount of time, it would gain sentience. Wind Bane had only recently gained the ability to talk to her, and while she said she couldn’t remember anything from before then, Narina had her suspicions.

_ You shouldn’t curse _ , Wind Bane chastised her. 

_ Good luck with that, _ came the voice from one of her other enchanted swords, Ember. 

Normally people had to carry their weapons around. As Narina raised the sword, shielding the wind with magic, she felt glad that her particular brand of magic allowed her to store swords, armor, etc, in a pocket dimension. 

In addition, she could create swords made out of pure magic, though for the point of carrying around a dozen enchanted swords, it wasn’t that useful. 

She frowned as she walked through the raging blizzard. 

“Do any of you sense anything?”

_ No, not really, _ Ember said. 

“Ah, so you finally noticed,” one said--one that she hadn’t used in decades. 

“Noticed what?” she said through gritted teeth. 

He chuckled. “The people following you, of course.” 

_ And when exactly did you notice? _ Wind Bane asked him. 

“Don’t even bother,” Narina told her. “Freezescar doesn’t give a spark about anything other than amusing himself.” She spun around, summoning Ember in her spare hand. Several other swords materialized into the air around her, blue magic crackling around them. 

The bandit stopped in place. Before he moved, the swords Narina had created shot forward, skewering him.

As the corpse flew off, She spun around, Ember meeting a steel sword. The human deflected the attack, but, as he was only wielding one sword, was unable to black Wind Bane as Narina ran the sword through his stomach. 

She paused, and quickly ducked to the side as a warhammer slammed the ground where she’d been standing. A troll was with the bandits. 

Or...no, these weren’t bandits. She counted two she’d killed, one behind her, and one hiding in the background, plus the troll. Mercenaries. 

The troll was the only one that could be annoying. Tall, with elongated limbs, and ridiculously sized hands and feet, it carried a warhammer in both hands, and its small head seated on its neck, about twelve feet in the air. 

She jumped away into a spot safe from immediate reach from all three remaining thugs.  _ Great, _ she thought.  _ Wonder who I burned this time? _

Freezescar, in the background, chuckled again, and she decided to ignore him. The troll, in a display of pure troll behavior, charged her, waving the warhammer around like he was paid per swing. She slashed with Ember, scoring a blow along its arm, then jumped back as a bolt of lightning shot right past her face. The troll swung right down at her, and she blocked with Wind Bane while skewering its stomach with Ember. But as she did--

_ Crack. _

Wind Bane screamed as a shard of metal sailed off. Screaming vengeful fury, Narina blasted fire through the troll with Ember. The troll fell over backwards, not quite dead, but out of the picture. She ducked aside another lightning bolt, and rolled under the third person’s sword swing, slicing through his stomach. She jumped into action, rushing towards the thunder mage, who vainly tried the exact same thing as she had done twice now, and threw another lightning bolt. Narina stepped to the side, and shot another magic blade at the thunder mage, hitting her arm. As Narina stepped forward, the thunder mage fell over, trying to pull the sword from her arm. 

“Please,” she said, moving back from Narina, falling over the frozen ground. The wind whipped Narina’s face, no longer held back by the broken blade Narina held. She stomped hard on the mage’s stomach, then held up Wind Bane. 

“Was it worth it?” she spat. 

“Please,” the mage said again. “Mercy…”

Narina shoved the sword down, but it stopped just short of killing the mage as she heard a small voice whimpering,  _ Stop. _

Gritting her teeth, Narina moved back a step, then kicked the mage. 

“Go away before I change my mind,” she snarled. She sent Ember back to the pocket dimension, then summoned a different sword. A giant, pale-blue greatsword, with a violet gem embedded in the handle. Whether a trick of the light or magic, it always looked like an eye, staring at her. 

“Oh, abandoning me, are you?” Freezescar said as she plunged it into the ground. 

She walked away from it. She realized that the bandit she’d just killed was still alive. He reached out to Freezescar. 

“Jorgan, no!” the mage cried as the man grabbed Freezescar. Blue fire erupted around him, and his dying screams rang out. Within seconds, nothing was left. 

“Are you really giving me up?” Freezescar asked, not even fazed. 

Narina ignored him. 

“Are you really condemning the next person to grab me to torment for the rest of his days?”

“I am done with you. You have been nothing but a burden, and a danger. If the next person who find you doesn’t throw you off a cliff, I say the deserve whatever happens to them.”

“Narina...don’t you dare leave me.”

Narina continued walking. 

“Narina...don’t you dare!  _ GET BACK HERE! DON’T LEAVE ME! YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT!” _

Narina was now out of earshot, but that didn’t stop the sword. 

_ “GET BACK HERE NOW! YOU TOOK ME, YOU ACCEPTED ME, YOU  _ KEEP _ ME! THAT’S HOW IT WORKS! DO YOU HEAR ME? GET BACK HERE!” _

“I’m done with this,” Narina said. 

_ Well, we’ve all been tired of him for a long time now. Maybe some time alone will help him _ , Ember said calmly. 

  
The thunder mage walked over to Freezescar. 

“She left me,” the sword said quietly. 

The thunder mage reached out and touched the sword’s hilt. Nothing happened. 

“Who are you?”

The gem, which looked peculiarly like an eye, rotated, and it seemed as if the sword was looking at her. 

“I am Winter. I am the Night Unending. I am the Frozen Hell. I am Freezescar.” He paused. “What is your name?”

“Jara.”

“Ah. Sorry about your friend. I was...angry, right then.”

“It’s okay.”

“Ah. Good. So, Jara...I feel like we’ll get along very well. How’s your swordsmanship, by the way?”


End file.
